My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Regarding the series, “Impostures innocentes, ou Recueil
d'estampes d'après divers peintres illustres”, the Curator of the British
Museum offers the following information:

“… a set reproducing works by Raphael, G. Romano, Parmigianino, L.
Carracci, G. Reni, S. Rosa, Ch. Le Brun, Rembrandt... The set was published in
Amsterdam in 1734 and was probably executed in the last years of Picart's life
(plate 42 is dated 1724; plate L is dated 1730)” (see BM No. 1868,0612.1397)

The British Museum offers the following description of the upper
print:

“Plate 49: historical allegory, with, slightly to the left, the
personifications of Spain, Holland and Germany joining hands to signify their
alliance against France; after a preparatory drawing for the decoration of the
Salon de la Paix, in Versailles.”

The British Museum offers the following description of the lower
print:

“Plate 50: historical allegory, with, at right, the
personification of Holland standing up and accepting peace by taking an olive
branch held out by Mercury while her allies, Spain and Germany, are still
surrounded by soldiers and winged figures waging war; after a preparatory
drawing for the decoration of the Salon de la Paix, in Versailles."

Condition: crisp and impressions with margins (as published) in excellent condition (i.e. there are no tears, holes, folds, abrasions, significant stains or foxing, but there is light age-toning to the outer edges).

I am selling this pair of large lunette format etchings by Picart
for a total cost of AU$284 (currently US$217.47/EUR183.77/GBP162.24 at the time
of this listing) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world (but
not, of course, any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries).

If you are interested in purchasing this finely executed prints
rich in symbolic narratives, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com)
and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

One of the problems facing artists when they set out to portray a
narrative with a cast of thousands is how they can sustain a viewer’s interest
without overwhelming the brain with too much visual information.

Many of the old masters, like Titian, sustained the viewer’s
interest by creating a grid-like pattern of lights and darks where attention is
drawn to “important” areas of bright light where figures can be easily seen
juxtaposed with areas of shadows where the visual engagement with the portrayed
figures is minimised (i.e. “played down”).

In this pair of semi-circular shaped etchings, Picart also employs
such a formula in his translation of Le Brun’s composition. Picart, however,
goes a stage further. He uses the format (i.e. the image’s shape) of a lunette
to create a bridge-like tension to pictorially “hold” the mass of figures into
an arrangement that is visually digestible.

In my reading of the upper composition—and I need to stress that
this is my personal reading that others may not share—I scan from the weighted
mass of figures on the lower-left and then progress through the turmoil of
figures along an arch-like rhythm passing through the centre of the image to
the lower-right side. For viewers with a mindset to read from the opposite
direction (i.e. from right-to-left), I can envisage that such a reading would
lead along an even more interesting path where the eye is taken on an almost
spiralling journey into the centre of the image following a pattern of lights
and darks.